grace.kindness.peace.disruption.pain.processing.rinse.repeat.have a nice day.

So that is the question for today after the Malfunction Indicator Lamp greeted me last evening as I returned to the Zeeb household after visiting with the Timmons. I have a blind date with a Honda dealership out here to check out my minor inconvenience … still hoping that it is only minor.

On the up side, Portland has been a wonderful stop on the magical mystery tour. Yesterday I spent three hours at Powell's Books with Martha Wood, keeping my purchases to one an hour. If you've never been, but have the chance, oh yeah, and you can read, then I highly recommend a visit. After a good round of shoe golf and visits to a couple coffee shops, I spent a lovely evening with the Timmons and their friend Holly.

I'll be off to Tacoma through Cannon Beach today, Honda willing.

Yep, I'm still contributing to the world's fifth largest economy here in California. I am currently roaming San Francisco with my friend and teammate from WMF Freetown, Chia. We'll hit up some of the popular sites today and pay a lot more than one should for parking. Unfortunately, I won't be able to see the Rock or Vickie, the famous Alcatraz tour guide.

Since my last post I've provided tech support by phone to "customers" in Africa while driving through the Mojave desert, had the best slice of strawberry pie that I might ever have in my life (Rock Creek Lakes Resort – Tom's Place, CA), made peanut butter sandwiches while watching a bear steal potato chips at twenty yards, hiked the 18 miles up to Half Dome for a killer view of Yosemite, and eaten a wonderful bowl of chowder on Pier 39. It's been a busy, slow week.

One aspect of my road trip that I've really enjoyed is meeting people with a wide range of personalities. Johannes wanted me to join his commune and to start calling Jesus by his "correct" name Yeshua. My REI Albuquerque sales rep was a just passing time selling gear and giving good advice for the Flagstaff/Sedona area until she could start an acupuncture practice. Eric, his girlfriend, and two cousins participated in a campfire therapy session after many Budweiser Select biceps curls (not pretty). The Aussie father and his son watched the bear steal chips with me the night before they were to go the the Burning Man festival. Chris was just looking for a beer so he could ease his nerves before going to sleep. All these people have added to the richness and depth of my trip. All these stories intersected with mine for a short period.

I'm excited for what the days ahead have in store for me. Tonight I'll head north of San Fran on the Pacific Coast Highway and camp along the coast. Oregon is in the near future and many good friends will enter the story. I'm really looking forward to see the state that caused so many Taylor freshman to complain about Indiana . Stay tuned …

California knows how to party. In short … L.A. traffic is bad enough that you might consider selling your favorite child just to avoid it. San Diego apparently killed off most of the seals in Mission Bay, leaving only one seal that appeared to be on it's last freaky fin-like leg. Still cool, but seemingly a gross, but amazing, freak of nature. Disneyland, a city within a city, meet all expectations. My inner child came out and frolicked with many other's outer children. We enjoyed a cream cheese filled pretzel on the It's a Small World ride, as my theme song played in the background. The world gets smaller every day.

The journey is still going well. I saw Cami, the field director from my time in Sierra Leone, and my teammate Ben last Wednesday and enjoyed a good time of fellowship and prayer. I crashed with Jason Sandifer in Redondo Beach. I walked down Venice Beach and saw many interesting things. I believe it might be the only place in the world where you can see an effeminate Malaysian body builder in a leopard skin speedo using his mad karate skills to beat up an older, mocking, overweight white guy … oh yeah, and later seeing the Malaysian guy arrested. God Bless America.

San Diego was filled with good friends and good food. I saw Amy Morris, and in turn, she showed me the town. It is a beautiful place. She and her friends also chaperoned me on my visit to Disneyland. Good times were had by all, even if the times were quite wet.

I'm about to head out for breakfast in Pasadena with my good friend Douglas Zukunft, a student at Fuller Seminary. I'm looking forward to the theological conversation over egg salad. After that I'll make a jaunt down Hollywood Blvd, just to make sure that they don't need a bearded mountain man for the next big Hollywood blockbuster. Heck, while I'm in town I might as well try. After my 15 minutes I'll head up the PCH and ultimately end up at Yosemite this evening. An adventure awaits.

I apologize for the silence over this past week. I forgot my laptop power adapter in Santa Fe, rendering my web presence silent. This was probably for the best, as the situation kept me out of the digital world, and firmly in the physical world. And the physical world required my full attention this past week.

Over the past week (or so) I've travelled through Colorado Springs, Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Flagstaff, the Grand Canyon, Sedona, and Phoenix. I wasn't planning to stay in Colorado Springs, but after spending 4-5 hours on top of Pikes Peak reading, journaling, playing guitar, and praying. I enjoyed the amazing views as the temperature dropped 20 degrees.

The next stop was Santa Fe, a town that I just didn't get. Perhaps it's because I'm not all that into viewing art alone, perhaps it's because I'm under 40 (the over-40 population was well represented with smiles on their faces). In any regards, I wasn't so impressed, despite some cool buildings and a nifty downtown arena of shops. I'd give it another chance some day.

The visit to Albuquerque is a technicality. I stopped off to pick up some equipment at REI. The sales associate gave me some great ideas for the Sedona area, so I'm counting it as a stop.

On the way to Flagstaff I stopped off at the Painted Forest and Petrified Forest National Park. Beautiful stuff, and a great opportunity to make the most of my National Park Pass.

Once in Flagstaff I enjoyed the ski town ambiance of this little burg in the mountains. I took what turned out to be a 10+ mile practice hike in the Arizona snow bowl. Regrettably, I forgot to bring a frisbee and could not play the frisbee golf course at 9,000 feet. I contemplated using my shoe, thus making it the shoe golf course, but decided against it when the hail began to fall.

All previous sites were dwarfed when I took a short drive north of Flagstaff and fell into a large hole. Well, it wasn't so much as a fall, but a steady descent. Despite my previous reservations to hiking the Grand Canyon solo, I decided not to pass up this opportunity to enjoy some of God's beautiful creation. Packed with eight PB's (no J – it permeates the bread when stored for a long time), jerky and other salted snacks, and almost eight pounds of water in my 40 lb pack, I began my descent. The views were breathtaking. I took over 130 photos on the way down, though none can properly capture what I saw.

At the bottom I camped at the Bright Angel campground, though I frequented the Phantom Ranch cantina to escape the 102 degree heat and to enjoy a from scratch stew for dinner. I met several quality people there and was welcomed by a couple groups. Mark and Emma from Chicago, the entire Hall clan, and Liz and Jeremy were great travel companions. I am very grateful to the Hall clan for welcoming me during their ascent the following day during which I was made an honorary member of Team Hydration (pictured right, minus one member). If you don't take hydration seriously, you die … or at least become another story for park rangers to tell to others.

After a few days at the cayon, I travelled down to Sedona, stopping by Bun Huggers in Flagstaff for the best burger I've had in a long time. Sedona was beautiful, though there were a few too many tourists seeking spiritual experiences at the well-known, oft-experienced, though still strange earth energy vortexes. I took the advice of Kristin Nunery and hiked Cathedral Rock

one morning. I spent a few hours up in the saddle between the rocks to read and view the local wildlife (check the video of the spider in the gallery). I met up with a Pam Roberts (a former co-worker) and her husband for brunch at Tlaquepaque, a quaint grouping of art, shops, and restaurants. The night before I backed my car into a tree there resulting in minor damage. The trip will continue! I wasn't very upset … maybe the energy vortexes do work.

After enjoying Sedona I travelled down to Phoenix, a city that is redefining the word "hot" for me. I thought after living in Seville, Spain, and West Africa that I knew what "hot" was. Apparently not. The one and only Peter Von Tobel has been a wonderful host. It's been good to catch up with my former roommate and to see his town. He was also so kind as to let me have the Santa Fe hotel ship my misplaced power supply to his house. I hope it comes today so I can get back up and running on my laptop. However, I'm not exactly slumming it on Pete's Mac Mini.

Good times behind. Good times ahead. Stay tuned for more …